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A48584
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A treatise of election and reprobation in vindication of the universal grace and love of God to mankind by B.L.
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Lindley, Benjamin, d. 1723.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing L2312; ESTC R28788
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51,533
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of so great difference sheweth as if they were not all made to the same End Answ The Vessels of Wrath are them that become such through Degeneration and Sin and even towards these God exerciseth great Patience Goodness and Mercy gives them time and space of Repentance indures them with much long Suffering till the Day of their Visitation is over then they are Vessels of Wrath fitted for Destruction but that they were so from before they were Born or fitted to Destruction in their first Structure neither this or any other Scripture holds whosoever are saved it is through Regeneration and Regeneration supposeth Generation and Degeneration going before Regeneration is a restoring our Generation bringing us into our first State and Image and all such are Vessels of Mercy And the Vessels of Wrath are the Unregenerate them in the Degeneration but no Man was made a Vessel of Wrath in the Day in which he was made Object 3. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my Power in thee and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth From whence some conclude Pharaoh to be made for a purpose of Destruction c. Answ This Scripture refers to Exodus 9.16 where the words in the Lattin are Veruntamen propterea feci ut restares nevertheless therefore I made that thou mighest remain c. or that thou remainest and in the Margent is put Made thee stand instead of which is put in the English Bible For this cause have I raised thee up and in Romans 9.17 For this same purpose where in the Latin both Tremellius Beza c. use the Verb Excitavi and in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same Signification None of all which Expressions relate to the Creation of Man or Pharaoh's being made to such an end but to something done to him or permitted or suffered after he was Man Nor is it deny'd but God may Judicially harden People after so long and manifest Opposition and Rebellion against him Now were past already Seven of the Plagues of Egypt and the Eighth about to be poured forth so no question God in his Justice sooner might have cut Pharaoh off Yet Time was lengthened to him and his Punishment further deferr'd for God's greater Glory that he might multiply his Signs upon Egypt and so his Power be manifest and Name declared throughout all the Earth and this is all that place imports But not that Pharaoh was made on purpose for this End of Destruction and no other nor doth Temporal Destruction always imply Eternal the terms in the Argument for instances not a few may be collected in Scripture where God pardons the Sin as to the Eternal Punishment of it and yet inflicts an heavy Temporal Punishment I come now to the second part of the Objection Therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth As to this and such Passages though our Opposers would have them carry their Sense yet read but as they should be read this Apostle's Epistles through and they explain themselves and shew in what manner and order and for what cause God declares his Wrath on the Vessels of Wrath and the Riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy and also teach us That every one who is a Vessel of Wrath becomes such by slighting the Mercies of God graciously tender'd him in the Day of his Visitation For there is such a Day to every one in which they may be saved and wherein God works upon them in order to this End This is a Day of Days an entrance into Life and Glory to them that know and improve it And these are them God will have Mercy on who in the time of their Visitation receive his Grace and Love and through the Power and Work of the Divine Word attain the New Birth And those that God will Judicially harden are they who despise the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering as did Pharaoh not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth to Repentance these through their hardness and impenitent Hearts treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath. And the others do not harden their Hearts but obey the Truth Now these different States have different Rewards and thus is Mankind distinguish'd into Vessels of Wrath and Vessels of Mercy Thus is it that some find Mercy and some are Hardened And as to such Expressions as Whom he will he hardeneth and God hardened Pharaoh 's Heart c. they are not to be understood as if hardening Men were simply of God until they have rejected the Tenders of his Love or without long and great Provocation on their part Nor are we to suppose they might not have avoided the cause of such Provocation from any fore-designed Hardening on God's part For during the time of any one's Visitation God freely offers them Mercy and what he doth afterwards hath no influence upon this Argument but even that seems rather a leaving them to themselves a giving them over to a Reprobate Mind to Impenitency and Hardness of Heart than active Hardening of them And so concerning the Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart it is said Exod. 4.21 and 7.13 and 10.27 That God hardened it and in the same Book Exod. 8.32 and 9.35 it is said That Pharaoh hardened his Heart So in the Scriptures first quoted the hardening Pharaoh's Heart is spoken of as God's Act and in the latter the same is spoken of as Pharaoh's Act Which seeming Difference is thus Reconcil'd Hardening in Scripture-sense is to be understood as a Searedness and Insensibility of things concerning the Glory of God and our Happiness which Condition is an effect of a customary and habitual Sinning according to that Saying Consuetudo peccandi Peccati sensum tollit The custom of Sinning takes away the Sense of Sin So Pharaoh persisting in a course of Sin and Wickedness unto great Obdurateness thus it is said He hardened his Heart and God ceasing to strive with him by his Spirit and relinquishing him to that Obdurateness thus it is said God hardened his Heart For as his Provocation was the cause of his Plagues so his Rebellion was the cause of his being Judicially Hardened By all which we may learn in what a Qualified Sense such Scriptures are to be understood and the ill Consequence of a partial taking them which may suffice to this Objection Object 4. Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his Will Nay but O Man Who art thou that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same Lump to make one Vessel unto Honour and another unto Dishonour Answ God doth not find fault where his Will is not resisted
Potter to make it Now it is a received Axiom Nullum simile currit quatuor therefore as no Work of God was marred in his hand Mankind came forth from him according to his designation in his own Image a Vessel of Honour c. Object 5. The Children not being yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth it was said The Elder shall serve the Younger as is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated c. Answ The Scripture speaks sometimes of singular Persons or Individuals when it is to be understood 1. Of Nations or People descending from them or 2. Of certain Spiritual States and Conditions We have instance of the first in Canaan the youngest Son of Ham Gen. 9.25 whom his Grand-father Noah cursed and denounced him a Servant of Servants to Shem and Japheth And in Esau and Jacob of whom it was fore-told The Elder should serve the Younger Gen. 25.23 And in Ephraim and Manasseh of whom it was said Gen. 48.19 The Younger should be the greater None of all which things were fulfilled in their Persons but in their Posterities c. For instance of the second Abraham had his Son Ishmae by Hagar Sara's Hand-maid a Bond-woman of Egypt of the Posterity of Ham this is said to be born after the Flesh And he had his Son Isaac by Sarah the Free-woman and this is said to be by Promise And these things saith the Apostle are an Allegory for these are the two Covenants the one from Mount Sinai Gal. 4.26 which is Hagar answering to Jerusalem that now is the other answering to Jerusalem from above The like Instance we have in Isaac Abraham's Heir and the Heir of God's Promise he had by his Wife Rebekah two Sons Jacob and Esau under whose Types are typified the Spiritual and Carnal Mind and Birth the Degenerate and Regenerate the Earthly and Heavenly c. So they are a double Instance to us in treating of this Text which is to be Mystically and not Literally understood as appears from the Blessing of Esau with the Fatness of the Earth Gen. 27.39 and the Dew of Heaven from above which is the same in effect with Jacob's Blessing only he had rule given over him but 't was only for a time for in the said Blessing the time is prophesied in which Esau should break Jacob's Yoke from off his Neck Now if God had hated Esau then Isaac could not at all have Blessed him in the Faith for whatsoever is done in the Faith is done in concurrence and accord with God but if God hated Esau and Isaac blessed him they would be contrary and repugnant the one to the other for all Blessing is of Love and so Isaac's Blessing of Esau had not been in the Faith for in it only things pleasing and acceptable to God are done and no works of jar and disagreement or contrariety to him these are not of Faith but the Scripture is express in it Heb. 11.20 That by Faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come so it must needs be that these things are an Allegory and that God did not hate Esau's Person but spoke of what he hated under the Type or Figure of him Take this Scripture literally to relate unto Esau in a strict and proper Sense and it would be of absurd and blasphemous Consequence for if it represents God as at Variance with himself and in a great degree Unhappy working without Pleasure Grace or Goodness in the Production of wretched hated Beings to Eternal Misery even Nature shrinks and is in horror at any dissimulate and monstrous Birth much more it is contrary to the God of Nature and to suppose othewise of God is no Christian but an Heathenish Notion it is so remote from Divine it is not Humane that God should be imployed in the making so many Thousand of People for the Torments of Hell Fire Such Notions had the Heathens of old concerning their Moloch and other false Deities to appease whose imagined Fury they caused their Children to pass through the Fire and become Burnt Sacrifices Having shewed the Blasphemy and Error that attends a Literal Construction of this Text and that it should be Mystically understood I shall proceed to speak something of its Mystery before I pass from hence We read in Scripture of two Seeds Mystically the Seed of the Woman which Seed is Christ who is also the Seed of the true Church and of the Kingdom of God and the Serpent's Seed or Seed of Antichrist of which cometh the false Church and Kingdom of Darkness And as every Birth hath its beginning from some Seed so of the first of these proceedeth the Birth of the Spirit called in Scripture Regeneration the New Birth the New Man c. And without this be there is no Salvation and how pure and spiritual a Seed is this Seed of the Living God of which Souls and Spirits are born Of the other proceedeth the Birth of the Flesh called in Scripture The Old Man with his Deeds Degenerate or the Vncircumcision the Reprobate Birth c. And how filthy and polluted a Seed is this Seed of the Serpent whereby Men become as Dogs Swine Serpents Dung Filth c. Now as according to the first we are in Christ Branches of him and Christ is God's Elect in whom his Soul delighteth blessed above all for ever And according to the other we are of the Devil Children of him Sprouts out of his Stock and the Devil only is God's Enemy cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the Field So of the first of these Election is predicated and Reprobation of the latter We are in a State of Election or Reprobation as we are related to the one or other of these Births if we live according to the one we shall die or the other we shall live Note For the prevention of mistakes in the weakest Reader that this Birth called the Birth of the Flesh is not to be understood simply of the Natural Birth but as fallen into Carnal-mindedness And the Scripture teacheth That to be Carnally-minded Rom. 8.6 7. is Death but to be Spiritually-minded is Life and Peace that the Carnal Mind is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be so they that are in the Flesh cannot please God This Mind is Dead an Enemy a Rebel and can never be otherwise it 's not capable of being made better to please God or to be subject to him or live there is neither Life Salvation or Blessing belongs to it it is not Heir to or capable of any good it is none of God's Works but is of the Evil One This is the Reprobate's Description On the other hand That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit this Birth is willing to all good it is its